The West Bengal Government on Thursday fixed the prices for set-top boxes for cable television users in Kolkata. Even after the expiry of the deadline, analogue signals or regular broadcast of channels without set top boxes continued across the city till Thursday.
According to market sources, a maximum of 40 per cent of the households have adhered to the digitisation norms. Digitisation norms include the mandatory installation of set-top boxes.
Following a meeting with the multi-system operators (MSOs), State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim on Wednesday announced that the prices for set-top boxes would be between Rs 799 and Rs 999 for standard definition connections.
High definition connections will come at a cost of Rs 2,999.
Earlier, MSOs and cable operators had claimed that there was a shortage in demand for set top boxes. As a result, prices of set-top boxes have been varying between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 over the last one month.
Between May and September this year, the set-top boxes had been selling anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 700 depending on the local cable operator.
While the deadline for digitisation ended on Wednesday (October 31), cable operators and MSOs demanded more time for digitisation at the “remaining 24 lakh-odd households” in the city, Swapan Chowdhury, convener of the Cable Operators’ Digitalisation Committee, said.
Services of various broadcasters (channels) were continued till Thursday in Kolkata.
“The State Government will monitor the entire digitisation process. We hope to finish digitisation at the remaining cable TV households soon,” Suresh Sethia, director of SitiCable, said.
According to Sethia, the State has control over the availability of analogue signals in different households.
Market sources maintain that there is still confusion over the number of set-top box installed in the city. Even though the MSOs are claiming that they have adequate number of set-top boxes, there seems to be a major shortage of set top boxes.